Your Right to Know

WASHINGTON — At least a dozen children or other relatives of Energy Department officials have
received summer jobs with the department in apparent violation of federal nepotism rules, an agency
watchdog said yesterday.

Inspector General Gregory Friedman said in a report that one senior Energy Department official
was actively involved in securing summer jobs for his three college-age children, including two who
ended up getting jobs in the division where the official works.

The official, who was not named, is a senior staff member in the Office of Energy Efficiency and
Renewable Energy. The report says the Energy Department is considering “appropriate corrective
action” but offers no specifics.

“Nepotism or even its appearance can have a decidedly negative impact on morale within an
organization,” Friedman wrote in a 19-page report.

Providing inappropriate advantages to relatives of federal employees “damages the integrity of
the competitive process and erodes public trust in the federal hiring process,” Friedman added.

Despite those strong words, his own office was not immune to the problem. Among those who got
summer jobs was the child of an employee in the inspector general’s office. The employee has been
reprimanded.